( US Coast Guard Photo )

Redfish Bar Cut Lighthouse
Galveston Bay in Texas

Redfish Bar runs across Galveston Bay from Smith Point to Edwards Point. This bar formed a barrier to ship passage for ships bound for ports in the Houston, Texas area.  Ships were forced to seek the deepest point on the bar for a passage.  To aid in this, in 1851, private commercial interests erected a beacon light eighteen feet above sea level.

Also, in 1851, The Coast Survey recommended that an iron screw pile lighthouse be built near the private lighthouse.  This lighthouse, Redfish Bar Lighthouse, was a square dwelling setting atop five screw piles.  During construction, the local lighthouse inspector complained that the screw piles were too short to protect the dwelling during high waves.  Since it was so late in the construction cycle, nothing could be changed and the structure was accepted on February 9, 1854.  It was white with red horizontal stripes and held a pressed glass lens, 35 feet above sea level.  In 1856 a new lantern and sixth order lens were installed.

The lighthouse was apparently burned by Confederate forces during the war.  Rebuilding of the lighthouse was completed in 1868.

In the 1880s and 1890s, the government dredged a ship channel that "cut" a channel through Redfish Bar.  A lighthouse was built to mark this channel. It began service on March 20, 1900, with a fifth order lens 39 feet above sea level.

Although it survived the 1900 and 1915 hurricanes, with some damage and near misses, it was dismantled in 1936 and replaced by channel lights mounted on pilings.

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